1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a parturition bed with a lying surface transversely divided into two mutually adjustable parts, i.e. a main supporting part providing support for the pelvis and upper part of the body of the parturient, and a leg supporting part providing support for her legs. Both the main supporting part and the leg supporting part may be adjusted from the specified height of their common lying plane to positions roughly parallel to this lying plane and at varying heights with respect to one another, i.e. a mechanism allows the leg supporting part to be lowered and raised. When the leg supporting part is in a lowered position in relation to the main supporting part, it can be slid into the free space below the main supporting part, at least as far in as the pelvis supporting portion of the latter, and in the longitudinal direction of the parturition bed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Simple parturition beds exist, e.g. in form of the U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,058, the EP-A- 0 136 419, the U.S. Pat. No. 4,682,376 and the DE-GM- 88 06419.
The U.S. Pat. No. 2,832,655 deals with a parturition bed of the kind described above; the leg supporting part can be lowered to a level immediately below that of the main supporting part and in this lowered position can be slid underneath the main supporting part, making it possible to use the parturition bed as a gynaecological chair. The AU-A - 8 326 375 discloses a very similar kind of bed.
Common to all the existing beds or parturition beds is the fact that the parturient is only able to assume a lying or half sitting position.
However, rediscovered knowledge shows that a vertical position and movement during the process of delivery entail a number of advantages from a medical point of view, as well as allowing the parents-to-be a more conscious experience of birth.
Up until today, it was necessary to improvise on ground level--usually with the help of mattresses and stools--to allow such an upright parturition position and the integration of the partner. Doctor and midwife had to assume comparatively strenuous postures to attend to a birth in any other position than one which had the parturient lying down.
The earlier EP-A-0 491 165, which was, however, published subsequently to this, describes a parturition bed also consisting of a main supporting part and a leg supporting part whose height can be adjusted in relation to one another. However, the leg supporting part can only be slid underneath the main supporting part when the former is in a fully lowered position. The leg supporting part can only be arrested at one particular level, i.e. it cannot be adjusted to intermediary levels between its highest and lowest position. This makes it difficult for the parturient to assume a squatting position, which, if at all, can only be achieved near floor level, making it necessary for the doctor or midwife to stoop while attending to the delivery.
In a semi-lowered position--which would enable the parturient to assume a squatting position at a higher level--the leg supporting part cannot be slid underneath the main supporting part as this is prevented by the height adjustment mechanism of the main supporting part which is shaped like a pillar and extends into the pelvis supporting portion of the main supporting part. Therefore the leg supporting part juts out and seriously impedes access, i.e. doctor or midwife have to lean over the protruding end of the leg supporting part.
Conversely, the specifications of the invention at hand place the main stay at the head end of the main supporting part, thereby creating a free space underneath the latter, permitting the leg supporting part to be slid under the main supporting part irrespective of the level the leg supporting part has been lowered to.